Beyond childcare leave: Building family-friendly workplaces is the critical step

PRIME Minister Lawrence Wong’s announcement at the National Day Rally on Aug 23 to extend childcare leave and fully reimburse employers for statutory child-related leave is a significant step in strengthening support for working parents.

As employers, we recognise the larger message behind the move: parents who feel supported are better able to give their best, both at home and at work. And ultimately, that is good for families, employers and Singapore.

In the longer term, having a strong Singaporean core workforce, complemented by a skilled foreign workforce, is the cornerstone of our economic success.

The marriage and parenthood agenda should therefore be top of mind for all of us.

For employers, this is not only a social imperative but also a workforce issue. Addressing this challenge will require a whole-of-society effort, involving the government, employers, employees and the wider community.

However, in the short term, employers are facing significant challenges, from global economic uncertainties to technological disruption and a tight labour market.

In a recent Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) survey of employers, 83 per cent cited rising manpower cost pressures as a top concern.

Many businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating with lean teams, therefore have limited spare capacity when employees are away.

The question for employers isn’t whether we support these enhanced leave provisions, but what does it take to make that support workable and sustainable?

Supporting families while sustaining productivity

With an ageing population and slower workforce growth, productivity is key to sustaining economic growth. As Singapore strengthens support for working parents, businesses will need to find ways to sustain output with the manpower available.

Productivity improvements become more important than ever before.

Experience elsewhere shows that reductions in working hours, if not accompanied by corresponding gains in productivity or labour force participation, can weigh on business competitiveness and in turn, income growth.

Hard work and a determination to do better have always been part of Singapore’s national DNA.

Even as we collectively create more space and time for working parents to raise their families, we must ensure that this is matched by stronger productivity and competitiveness, so that businesses can continue to grow and create good jobs for Singaporeans.

Employers will need to accelerate productivity improvements through technology, automation and job redesign, while reviewing processes to eliminate lower-value work and make better use of scarce manpower.

Managers could also place greater emphasis on work objectives and outcomes, rather than simply the amount of time employees spend at the workplace.

Employees play an important role too. Greater support and flexibility should go hand in hand with a shared commitment to meeting work objectives and working constructively with managers and colleagues to minimise disruption.

If employers and employees can achieve this, accommodating childcare responsibilities need not come at the expense of competitiveness. Instead, it can spur us to find better and more productive ways of working.

Flexibility beyond leave

While childcare leave provides parents with valuable time to attend to their children, caregiving needs do not always require a full day away from work.

A parent may need a few hours to take a child to the doctor or attend a school appointment. At other times, an unexpected caregiving situation may be better managed through an adjusted work schedule or temporary change in work arrangements.

Flexible work arrangements can complement statutory leave by giving employers and employees more options to manage caregiving needs while allowing work to continue.

That said, the modality of flexible work arrangements may vary according to the role. Remote work may be feasible for an office employee, but not for someone working on a production line, at a restaurant or the healthcare frontlines.

Staggered hours, shift adjustments or temporary changes in duties may be more practical for these employees, depending on operational requirements.

The focus should be on finding arrangements that meet caregiving needs while enabling employers and employees to meet their work objectives.

Building more resilient organisations

Employers should also take the opportunity to examine their organisations’ resilience when employees are temporarily absent. If the absence of one employee significantly disrupts an essential function, this may point to an over-reliance on the individual.

Cross-training, better process documentation and knowledge-sharing can give teams greater capacity to cover critical functions. Job redesign can also make roles and teams more adaptable.

These measures strengthen business continuity not only when employees take childcare leave, but also when they step away for other reasons.

For SMEs operating with leaner teams, building such resilience can be more challenging.

Nonetheless, identifying critical functions and putting practical covering arrangements in place can help minimise disruptions and strengthen organisational resilience.

Employers need not undertake these changes alone.

Through the Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package, the SNEF will support employers in reviewing their workforce needs, redesigning jobs and processes, and building the capabilities needed to become more productive and resilient.

The Alliance for Action on Advancing Career & Employment Services, convened by the Ministry of Manpower and SNEF, is also developing new solutions for employers, including SMEs, that will help to address temporary manpower gaps and backfilling needs.

Upholding fairness and strengthening teamwork

A family-friendly workplace must work well for the wider workforce too.

When employees go on leave, colleagues may need to cover urgent responsibilities for them. Questions on fairness have been raised and employers need to address such questions squarely.

A fair and inclusive workplace does not mean that every employee benefits from exactly the same leave provisions or benefits.

Employees will have different needs at different stages of life. One employee may need childcare leave while another may need time off for eldercare, illness or other personal circumstances.

What matters is building a workplace where people understand this, work together as a team, and reshuffle workloads when needs arise.

A strong workplace is one where employees help one another through different life stages, with employers recognising those who step up to support their teams. It is one where family-friendly initiatives strengthen workplace culture, rather than create perceptions of inequality.

This requires flexibility, understanding and trust – not only between employers and employees, but among colleagues themselves.

Making it work together

The government’s decision to extend statutory childcare leave and reimburse employers for all child-related leave is a clear recognition that supporting parenthood is a shared national responsibility. The government is stepping in to bear more of the direct costs rather than relying more on individual employers.

This spirit of shared responsibility must extend into workplaces. Employers need to organise work so that family-friendly practices are sustainable, while employees support one another when needs arise.

Sometimes this will mean colleagues chipping in for one another, knowing that at another stage of life, they too may need others to step up for them.

It is this “we first” mindset that will allow Singapore to become more family-friendly while remaining productive, fair and cohesive.

The writer is chief executive officer of SNEF